The Black Shield of Falworth (1954)

Directed by Rudolph Maté. Starring Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, David Farrar, Herbert Marshall, Barbara Rush, Daniel O’Herlihy, Torin Thatcher, Ian Keith, Patrick O’Neal, Craig Hill, Rhys Williams.

Howard Pyle’s juvenile Middle Ages yarn “Men of Iron” is the basis for this broad, lumbering adventure. Tony Curtis’ Noo Yawk farmer-turned-knight doesn’t exactly summon memories of Flynn, Fairbanks or Lancaster, and the screenplay’s contemporary values are as ill-fitting in Ye Olde frippery as a production of Ivanhoe would be with courtesans in culottes. Rarely dull, at least, with some decently hissable villains played by David Farrar and Torin Thatcher. Hans Salter went uncredited for his music score.

53/100